On muting the message and shooting the (YouTube) messenger from Down Under

Sorry to say but I discovered over the weekend that
the very compelling p.s.a. video that was the focus of
my advertising industry-related blog post of July 10th,
TAC-SWAP -which I've gotten a lot of positive
email about, esp. from overseas visitors to
Hallandale Beach Blog- has, for now at least,
been rendered invisible on YouTube as a result of
a copyright claim by the very people in Australia
whom you'd think would want the message they
paid for to be seen by as many people as possible,
the Transportation Accident Commission.

You don't have to have read every one of world-renown
Northwestern marketing professor Philip Kotler's
many great books on marketing strategies, or sat in
on his Kellogg classes in Evanston, to know what
a very bad decision that will likely turn out to be in
retrospect.
http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/bio/Kotler.htm
http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/Faculty/Blogroll/All-Blogs.aspx
http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/Faculty/Books_By_Faculty/Marketing.aspx


Looking northeast towards the main part of
Northwestern's campus and Lake Michigan.
Until you've been there, you can't imagine
how beautiful the Evanston campus is.
It's not quite in IU's class in terms of beauty,
but it's much beter than 95% of this country's
college campuses.

Here they have precisely the sort of great interest
in their awareness campaign that you'd want, and
they not only don't have a means for sharing it
from their own website, but they've actually now
clamped down on the one-and-only way most people
will ever hear about it, including similarly-situated
groups around the world, who, it might be hoped,
might get the kick-in-the-pants they need to start
being as realistic and compelling on their home
turf as this and the preceding TAC ads have been.

(To see previous Grey Melbourne advertising
and marketing campaigns, go to
http://www.coloribus.com/adsarchive/search/?q=Grey%20Melbourne )


Just imagine if overnight, Miami-Dade County and
Broward County governments were forced to pay for
ads on local TV this realistic, to induce citizens to
call anonymously to report govt. graft and abuse,
kick-backs, contract chicanery or ethical funny
business by elected officials or govt. employees?

That would be great to see on TV, and the sort of thing
that the Broward County Ethics Commission
really ought to be pushing hard, if you ask me.
http://www.broward.org/ethicscommission/welcome.htm

So, with all that said, here is the only legally-sanctioned
website where you can actually see the SWAP p.s.a.,
although a few places around the world still have it up
until the Australians force them to pull it down
-like at Sostav in Moscow,
http://www.sostav.ru/news/2009/07/10/cod3/ -
albeit without the benefit of a large screen.

To see the campaign:
http://www.tac.vic.gov.au/jsp/content/NavigationController.do?areaID=23&tierID=1&navID=63CC12CD7F00000101A5D19311EC6AC2&navLink=null&pageID=1847

Kudos to the people at Grey Melbourne who made
this great ad possible, which hasn't gone un-noticed:
creative director Nigel Dawson;
executive creative director Ant Shannon;
writer Nigel Dawson;
art director Pete Becker;
agency producer Jess Smith,
account director Claudia McInerney,
TV Director Sean Meehan,
film company Soma Films;
client Emma Mulholland and John Thompson;
Media Mitchells.

Advertising: TAC's PSA from Down Under leaves you stone cold sober

I first heard about this very compelling

PSA commercial that's currently running

in Australia from a friend who's a

high-ranking executive in the advertising

industry here in the U.S.

That's actually the sort of job that I

always imagined for myself while I was

North Miami Beach and then at IU,

back when I routinely and devoutly

devoured Advertising Age and the

late Dunn's Business Monthly like

clockwork. http://adage.com/

(Today's amusing AA online headline:

BK Will Forgo Sex in Exchange for

Cheeseburger

Promises Franchisees to Tone Down

Advertising if Value Menu Is Approved)

(For the record, back then, my back-up

career plan consisted largely of being a

savvy and influential Media Analyst for

Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, now

part of Credit Suisse, and eventually

forming a VC (venture capital) company

of my own specializing in media properties.

Then, eventually parlaying some of the

profits of those enterprises in owning

a minority ownership stake in a MLB

team in South Florida that I helped

create and would market to make it

both dynamic, appealing and

profitable.

Now that you know that fact, perhaps

some of you out there in the blogosphere

will better appreciate where I'm coming

from in my past and future criticisms of

the Florida Marlins ownership and

marketing operations, a few posts of

which I've kept in cold storage since

last year, ready for use on a rainy day.

Well, I think it'll be raining next week!)

Getting my hands on those particular

magazines back then wasn't an easy

task and required time and commitment

in the form of a trip from NMB a few times

a month to a small magazine shop off

of S. Dixie Highway, south of the U-M,

that was one of only 2 or 3 places in

all of South Florida that even carried

Ad Age back in Ye Olde Times.

Back before there were plenty of clean

and well-organized Barnes & Noble

and Borders stores in upscale retail

outlets to satisfy those specialized

reading needs of mine.

That desire to be part of the challenging

and VERY competitive artistic and

creative side of business life is what

led me initially to move to Chicago

in 1985.

That, along with my many friends

from IU beckoning me to move there,

who thought that I'd just love spending

afternoons at Wrigley Field and

nights along Rush Street and would

fit right in.

They were right!

And as it happened, my first year

there was Andre Dawson's first year,

an MVP year which I saw in person

about 15 times that year at the

Friendly Confines.

Well, to be honest, their collective pull

of attraction plus the always sage and

practical advice of Jack Hanrahan,

then a Media Director at Leo Burnett

and a great and loyal IU alum who was

always such a tremendous help to me

when I was at IU and part of Student

Alumni Council.

That was especially true when we

needed a truly dynamic speaker to

speak to students at one of our big

annual events about life AFTER

Bloomington.

http://www.zoominfo.com/people/Hanrahan_Jack_48965239.aspx

Jack Hanrahan never disappointed

in all those years I was there because

he doesn't know how to tell a bad story,

or ever fail to keep a promise, a great

combination.

He's also someone who can consistently

tell what at first seems to be merely

an amusing anecdote, but weave it

into a compelling, over-arching narrative

that paints a much larger picture than

at first glance.

Of course, that's part of why he was

so great at his job

http://www.tvweek.com/news/2009/05/more_than_media_in_hanrahans_w.php

After Jack spoke to us one year at

an event that got a great turn-out and

was a big success, he kept in touch

and was always quick to share a clever

suggestion or two that he thought

would help make our/my efforts more

successful.

Thanks to him, they usually were.

After I got to Chicago, I met with Jack

and some other folks at his office, and

after it became rather apparent within

a week or so that nothing was going to

open up that summer at Burnett,

Jack made a few phone calls around

town, selling my potential and personality.

Thanks to his efforts and I'd like to think,

a small amount of my talent, a week later,

I met with an important VP over at the

one-and-only J. Walter Thompson.

It actually looked for a bit that my future

was going to include working at JWT,

then the world's largest advertising

agency.

Unfortunately, that was the summer of

my advertising discontent, since that

summer, Saatchi & Saatchi was on

the prowl in a big way for American ad

agencies, and every agency in Chicago

responded by shedding or trimming

or shredding newly-hired personnel

to make themselves appear more lean

and financially taut.

http://www.tvweek.com/news/2009/05/more_than_media_in_hanrahans_w.php

This very powerful PSA below that was

done by Grey (Melbourne) for client TAC,

the Transport Accident Commission

in Melbourne, is one you'd never see

the likes of in the squeamish U.S.

Like so much of the very best advertising,

it works because it's 100% true and plays

into consumers basic beliefs about behavior

amd personal responsibility.

Video URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76FVnzBJsfg

For more information on this ad and others in the

series, see

http://www.coloribus.com/adsarchive/tv-commercials/anti-drugs-and-driving-swap-558121/

A particularly effective TAC PSA from two years

ago called Young Cops causes the very same

anxiety to wash over you, because you know

what's coming but you still end up watching.

Video URL:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00YIaa2mnyI

Another innovative marketing approach

that TAC's taken in trying to reduce auto

accidents is their Yellow Card program,

which consists of people rebuking their

own friends and family in a very tangible

way, like a soccer referee giving a public

warning, that probably couldn't work here.

http://www.yellowcard.tv/#/home

-----------------------

Sydney Morning Herald

Blurred Vision

Richard Blackburn,

August 23, 2007

Drugs cause more fatal road crashes than speeding and twice as many

as alcohol but NSW authorities have been slow to adopt random roadside

testing, http://www.drive.com.au/Editorial/PrintArticle.aspx?id=42846

----------------

I'll have a lot more to say about the

advertising industry in future posts

here, including some amusing

fact-filled anecdotes about marketing

campaigns involving South Florida

and Chicago, as well as national

campaigns.

Because I read so many books and

magazine stories about the dynamic

figures behind the agencies in NY

and Chicago, including the classic

Olgilvy on Advertising,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ogilvy

I still recall the old names of the ad

agencies before countless mergers made

them both larger (yet dimmer!), and harder

to understand what the letters stood

for, -if they stood for anything at all.

And I still recall who was a longtime

client of whom.

Eastern Airlines, The Wings of Man.

Yes, that really is the voice of Orson Welles.

--------

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Concluding with my favorite all-time PSA,

for Radio Free Europe, a commercial that

left an indelible mark on my consciousness

as a kid.

"Peter was a boy when he left Hungary..."

You can never go wrong with Ben E, King

and the Drifters singing On Broadway...